Great top 10 and awesome vid. I was closer to Sahd's top 10 rather than Fez's, but enjoyed hearing all your reasons for including them! Definitely a few I want to try out. Here's my personal top 10 as a strategy-heavy, more interactive (less solitaire) type of board gamer: #10: Scythe - for all the reasons you guys discussed. #9: Inis - personally this is my favourite game with drafting mechanism. Another hybrid one which seems like a common theme! I like It's A Wonderful World but the interactivity and area control nature of Inis just beats it, and the artwork is gorgeous too. #8: Glory to Rome. It is absolutely phenomenal how many different strategies are packed into this game. An absolute masterpiece by Carl Chudyk and just wish it was generally available so that more people can discover what makes this game so good. #7: Xia: Legends of a Drift System. Note: This is assuming you also have the Embers of a Forsaken Star expansion, which fixes all the issues with the base game. This is the best space sandbox in existence. Be whatever you want to - merchant, trader, pirate, renegade, miner - the stars are truly the limit! #6: Brass: Birmingham. Martin Wallace is a god of designing Euro games. We alternate between this and Anno 1800 in my play group, but we recently went back to play Brass, and there's just something about Brass that edges it. I think it's the fact that the true key to winning this game is to play around everyone else's strategy - it's not good enough to have a plan in mind and just execute. You have to be responsive. #5: Pax Pamir: Second Edition. I only have a few plays of this but desperately want more. There is so much to love about this game, especially the play mat. I am consistently shocked at how this big meaty game fits into such a small and beautiful box. #4: Nemesis (or Nemesis: Lockdown). I actually slightly prefer the original - there's something about recreating the Alien experience on the spaceship that is truly special. A fantastic and memorable experience guaranteed. #3: Dwellings of Eldervale. Sahd totally nailed it. It's a great hybrid game. My favourite parts which I don't think you mentioned are (a) you can dominate / mind-control the monsters with the right cards in your tableau, and (b) you can upgrade your engine with orbs to make it insanely broken! And the multiple different ways of ending the game actually give you some autonomy in deciding when is the right time to get your points and close out the game (a bit like Scythe). Timing is everything! #2: Dune: Imperium. There's no better combination of worker placement and deckbuilding than this game (I haven't played Arnak yet but I'm certain this will still take the top spot). I think Uprising is great too - you just have to make sure you play it with a group that knows to punish the leader who's usually favoured in combat. #1: Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy. The feeling of discovering lost technology drifting in space, upgrading your ships, and then seeing how well they perform in battle with just the right formula of dice-chucking and luck mitigation is something else. This game is 4x heaven, and I just can't wait for the expansions to arrive in the next month or two so I can get stuck right back into this one.
Great Video! For me it's Spirit Island all the way. It was my entry game that brought me into board games and it is still my favorite. The high variance and the theme hooked me enough to get through the early struggle of "what the heck is going on?!"
I've yet to try Another Glorious Day In The Corp, but love Alien. I'll put this on my list of games to try. Thanks for watching and for dropping a comment! 😁
ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo went surprisingly well at a games group. Quite casual game easy to learn also nice figures (I've used them for my alien rpg)
I just wanted to say I had never heard of Mellienium Blades before this but being a Yu-Gi-Oh kid growing up and tcg player now I was immediately sold. Managed to buy it secondhand off a person in my area who had just put theirs up for sale. Thanks guys.
i have to pause the video when Millenium blades came up, its one of my favorite game very unique game! my only problem with it its the paper money XD,, thanks for bringing it up
It's really good. I went into it thinking I didn't really need it as part of my collection, but walked away from the table highly impressed. I love terraforming mars and race for the galaxy, and it combined the best of both into ares expedition.
Fez here. Great question! I had to think about this one quite a lot and even discussed it with Sahd. We are of South Asian heritage though born in Britain, so British colonialism played a huge part on my life. My identity is defined by this history, so for me to wish it was different would be me asking for my identity to be different. I am proud of who I am and of my heritage. It can be challenging feeling like your identity is less significant than others when people see you as 'different'. I was out very recently with a friend of mine and I was racially abused by an individual and accused of being a 'drug dealer'. The funny thing is, I am actually a doctor who used to work in the NHS - so quite the opposite! If the effects of colonialism were removed, it makes me wonder if I'd have moments like that anymore. Despite this, I wouldn't choose remove the effects if it was just my life that would change. I probably would have been born in a united India without colonialism. My parents would tell me stories that were passed down from their parents during the time of the partition of India and Pakistan. It was horrible. So much hatred. So much death. A united nation became divided. If I could click my fingers and remove THOSE effects, the answer to that would be an easy yes. No one deserved that trauma.
For a long time spirit island was my #1. Until i discovered Innovation from Carl Chudyk. The more i play it, the better it gets. Best game ever. #3 is Race for the galaxy because of its engine building and bluffing build into it. Bluffing? Yes. The more you play it, the more you will understand. 😂 ❤
Some great picks here! Yup, there is definitely an element of bluffing in Race For The Galaxy. A brilliant game. Thanks so much for watching and commenting 😁
Got this video randomly recommended to me by youtube and watched it all the way through and I think I'll keep doing that in the future. Great list! Could you maybe do a top 10 list for your favorite 2-player games? My Boyfriend and I play a lot of MtG and BloodBowl but we sometimes like to play board games instead but not all games we have work great with 2 players. But I'll definetly give Spirit Island another shot as 2 player. Only played it once after my boyfriend fell in love with the game at a friends place and then he got it, we played it and I hated it. But we do for example love Star Wars Rebellion even though it takes aaaages and takes up a lot of space.
SW Rebellion is a fantastic game, but you're right, it's pretty looong. Spirit Island is definitely worth another go, I've loved every minute of it. Thanks for the suggestion for a video. We did actually have a blog post for something similar for valentines day! I'll link it below: gatheringgames.co.uk/community/blog/best-2-player-board-games-for-valentines-day
@@GatheringGamesThanks for the link. I was mainly thinking about games that are designed for 3-4 players that do work well with just 2 players. You mentioned a couple times in your list that you play that specific game mostly between you two.
Bullet by Lv99Games is 1-4 players that works well with 2 players either head to head or co-op. A typical game is roughly 15 minutes. The goal is to manipulate the board pieces, called bullets, to make patterns matching the cards in your hand, which clears them from your board and sends them to the opponent, all while the opponent is trying to do the same to you. If you happen to like fighting games, BattleCon is an outstanding 2 Player game (1-5 player with Devastation), and Exceed is its cousin that licenses actual fighting game franchises like Street Fighter and Guilty Gear. Millennium Blades, mentioned in the video, simulates the TCG experience, and is currently on Kickstarter right now reprinting all of the hard to find expansions. As an old MtG player, I can confirm it does an excellent job giving you a fresh TCG experience each time you play.
Sahd and I played this a little while back and both LOVED it! Only wish I had more time with the game. Great recommendation! Thanks for watching and commenting :)
Can't say I've played any of the games you mentioned, but my #1 is and always will be Betrayal at House on the Hill. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. The betrayal mechanic and diversity of both gameplay and endgame make it one of the most revolutionary games I have ever heard of.
I still have to sit down and play Betrayal. I've hard so many good things about it and I do love a good traitor game. It's going on my to play list :) Thanks so much for watching and for leaving a comment!
Jaipur is one of me and my partner's favorite two player games. So simple yet so great with luck and strategy! Thanks for the video! Always looking for different perspectives and new games to add to the foundational collection.
I really enjoyed this video. Production was excellent and I really liked how natural you guys seem talked about the games you clearly enjoy. Subscribed.
First timer here! Great videos. I feel like lots of RUclipsrs just talk passionately about games without showing it, or have some boring editing. You guys knock it out of the park! Subbed!
The downside to this video is not having a constant text overlay that says what game is being talked about.
Great top 10 and awesome vid. I was closer to Sahd's top 10 rather than Fez's, but enjoyed hearing all your reasons for including them! Definitely a few I want to try out.
Here's my personal top 10 as a strategy-heavy, more interactive (less solitaire) type of board gamer:
#10: Scythe - for all the reasons you guys discussed.
#9: Inis - personally this is my favourite game with drafting mechanism. Another hybrid one which seems like a common theme! I like It's A Wonderful World but the interactivity and area control nature of Inis just beats it, and the artwork is gorgeous too.
#8: Glory to Rome. It is absolutely phenomenal how many different strategies are packed into this game. An absolute masterpiece by Carl Chudyk and just wish it was generally available so that more people can discover what makes this game so good.
#7: Xia: Legends of a Drift System. Note: This is assuming you also have the Embers of a Forsaken Star expansion, which fixes all the issues with the base game. This is the best space sandbox in existence. Be whatever you want to - merchant, trader, pirate, renegade, miner - the stars are truly the limit!
#6: Brass: Birmingham. Martin Wallace is a god of designing Euro games. We alternate between this and Anno 1800 in my play group, but we recently went back to play Brass, and there's just something about Brass that edges it. I think it's the fact that the true key to winning this game is to play around everyone else's strategy - it's not good enough to have a plan in mind and just execute. You have to be responsive.
#5: Pax Pamir: Second Edition. I only have a few plays of this but desperately want more. There is so much to love about this game, especially the play mat. I am consistently shocked at how this big meaty game fits into such a small and beautiful box.
#4: Nemesis (or Nemesis: Lockdown). I actually slightly prefer the original - there's something about recreating the Alien experience on the spaceship that is truly special. A fantastic and memorable experience guaranteed.
#3: Dwellings of Eldervale. Sahd totally nailed it. It's a great hybrid game. My favourite parts which I don't think you mentioned are (a) you can dominate / mind-control the monsters with the right cards in your tableau, and (b) you can upgrade your engine with orbs to make it insanely broken! And the multiple different ways of ending the game actually give you some autonomy in deciding when is the right time to get your points and close out the game (a bit like Scythe). Timing is everything!
#2: Dune: Imperium. There's no better combination of worker placement and deckbuilding than this game (I haven't played Arnak yet but I'm certain this will still take the top spot). I think Uprising is great too - you just have to make sure you play it with a group that knows to punish the leader who's usually favoured in combat.
#1: Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy. The feeling of discovering lost technology drifting in space, upgrading your ships, and then seeing how well they perform in battle with just the right formula of dice-chucking and luck mitigation is something else. This game is 4x heaven, and I just can't wait for the expansions to arrive in the next month or two so I can get stuck right back into this one.
I second you on Glory to Rome. That game needs to be wayyyy more available!!
Great Video!
For me it's Spirit Island all the way. It was my entry game that brought me into board games and it is still my favorite. The high variance and the theme hooked me enough to get through the early struggle of "what the heck is going on?!"
We definitely had that moment when playing, but I'm glad we persevered because it deserved our time. Thanks so much for watching and commenting 😊
Wow. Spirit Island was your entry game? Amazing you're still in the hobby! I love that game to bits but it's definitely a tough starting point!
Mansions of Madness is definitely in my top ten favourite games along with Star Wars Outer Rim and Another Glorious Day in the Corp
I've yet to try Another Glorious Day In The Corp, but love Alien. I'll put this on my list of games to try. Thanks for watching and for dropping a comment! 😁
ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo went surprisingly well at a games group. Quite casual game easy to learn also nice figures (I've used them for my alien rpg)
Im not into a lot of Euro games, which you guys clearly like.
But I see Deception and Spirit Island in there, so we gotta be buddies :D
I just wanted to say I had never heard of Mellienium Blades before this but being a Yu-Gi-Oh kid growing up and tcg player now I was immediately sold. Managed to buy it secondhand off a person in my area who had just put theirs up for sale. Thanks guys.
We hope you have an awesome time with it buddy! :D
Fantastic intro. I wish the game names were in the description with timestamps though!
That would be giving too much away, right? 😜
Thanks for the feedback and for watching!
i have to pause the video when Millenium blades came up, its one of my favorite game very unique game! my only problem with it its the paper money XD,, thanks for bringing it up
I quite enjoyed the paper money stacks! Though it was a real ball ache to make them 😂
Damn, that intro salvo was great. Good stuff guys! Subbed.
"And this is my number X game!"
"Oh, really that's your number X? Well, it's certainly *talks for the portion about how good it is anyways."
Totally disagree with all your picks, but a well produced video nonetheless :) Good job!
Thanks for watching and commenting. Tell us what your picks would be 😁
Uno, Skip Bo, Phase Ten, Monopoly Jr., Old Maid.
What do you guys think of Ares Expedition?
It's really good. I went into it thinking I didn't really need it as part of my collection, but walked away from the table highly impressed. I love terraforming mars and race for the galaxy, and it combined the best of both into ares expedition.
If you could snap your fingers and remove the effects colonialism had in your life, would you? Why or why not?
Fez here. Great question!
I had to think about this one quite a lot and even discussed it with Sahd. We are of South Asian heritage though born in Britain, so British colonialism played a huge part on my life. My identity is defined by this history, so for me to wish it was different would be me asking for my identity to be different. I am proud of who I am and of my heritage. It can be challenging feeling like your identity is less significant than others when people see you as 'different'. I was out very recently with a friend of mine and I was racially abused by an individual and accused of being a 'drug dealer'. The funny thing is, I am actually a doctor who used to work in the NHS - so quite the opposite! If the effects of colonialism were removed, it makes me wonder if I'd have moments like that anymore. Despite this, I wouldn't choose remove the effects if it was just my life that would change.
I probably would have been born in a united India without colonialism. My parents would tell me stories that were passed down from their parents during the time of the partition of India and Pakistan. It was horrible. So much hatred. So much death. A united nation became divided. If I could click my fingers and remove THOSE effects, the answer to that would be an easy yes. No one deserved that trauma.
Can’t believe I missed this channel for so long and hope it gets the attention it deserves. Been championing Concordia to all my friends and fam.
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Concordia should be in everyone's collection 😁
For a long time spirit island was my #1. Until i discovered Innovation from Carl Chudyk. The more i play it, the better it gets. Best game ever.
#3 is Race for the galaxy because of its engine building and bluffing build into it. Bluffing? Yes. The more you play it, the more you will understand. 😂
❤
Some great picks here! Yup, there is definitely an element of bluffing in Race For The Galaxy. A brilliant game. Thanks so much for watching and commenting 😁
Being from Hong Kong, "Made in China or Hong Kong" hits too real 😭
Got this video randomly recommended to me by youtube and watched it all the way through and I think I'll keep doing that in the future. Great list!
Could you maybe do a top 10 list for your favorite 2-player games? My Boyfriend and I play a lot of MtG and BloodBowl but we sometimes like to play board games instead but not all games we have work great with 2 players. But I'll definetly give Spirit Island another shot as 2 player. Only played it once after my boyfriend fell in love with the game at a friends place and then he got it, we played it and I hated it. But we do for example love Star Wars Rebellion even though it takes aaaages and takes up a lot of space.
SW Rebellion is a fantastic game, but you're right, it's pretty looong. Spirit Island is definitely worth another go, I've loved every minute of it.
Thanks for the suggestion for a video. We did actually have a blog post for something similar for valentines day! I'll link it below:
gatheringgames.co.uk/community/blog/best-2-player-board-games-for-valentines-day
@@GatheringGamesThanks for the link. I was mainly thinking about games that are designed for 3-4 players that do work well with just 2 players. You mentioned a couple times in your list that you play that specific game mostly between you two.
Bullet by Lv99Games is 1-4 players that works well with 2 players either head to head or co-op. A typical game is roughly 15 minutes. The goal is to manipulate the board pieces, called bullets, to make patterns matching the cards in your hand, which clears them from your board and sends them to the opponent, all while the opponent is trying to do the same to you.
If you happen to like fighting games, BattleCon is an outstanding 2 Player game (1-5 player with Devastation), and Exceed is its cousin that licenses actual fighting game franchises like Street Fighter and Guilty Gear.
Millennium Blades, mentioned in the video, simulates the TCG experience, and is currently on Kickstarter right now reprinting all of the hard to find expansions. As an old MtG player, I can confirm it does an excellent job giving you a fresh TCG experience each time you play.
Oi, we all decided to leave that guy behind that door, don’t blame me😂
😂
Y'all seem to like puzzles/deduction games, so you might like Mind MGMT! One of my favorites. It's self-balancing which is cool.
Sahd and I played this a little while back and both LOVED it! Only wish I had more time with the game. Great recommendation! Thanks for watching and commenting :)
Excellent game, we're about 3 sessions in at the moment. Need to get back to it Fez!
First time to the channel and happy I found it. This was a great list with alot of cross overs with myself. Keep up the great work
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Tell us your no. 1 favourite board game of all time 😁
Nice video. Now guys, it's time to buy some Folded Space inserts...
yes, murder in hongkong is great, but Scapegoat... now that is a game
I keep hearing about this one! It's officially on my 'games to play' list. Thanks for watching and commenting :D
Great top 10 guys! Keep it coming!
Thanks so much for watching and dropping a comment! ☺️
Anachrony is my favorite game of all time.
My #1 is BattleCon by Lv99Games.
Millennium Blades is in my top 10, as well, but I don't think BattleCon will ever stop being my favorite.
I'm gonna have to give BattleCon a go. If its even half as good as Millennium Blades I'm sure it'll be amazing. Thanks for the recommendation 😊
Can't say I've played any of the games you mentioned, but my #1 is and always will be Betrayal at House on the Hill. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. The betrayal mechanic and diversity of both gameplay and endgame make it one of the most revolutionary games I have ever heard of.
I still have to sit down and play Betrayal. I've hard so many good things about it and I do love a good traitor game. It's going on my to play list :)
Thanks so much for watching and for leaving a comment!
What is your second and third? I like Feast for Odin and Dune: Imperium.
Great video!!! My number 1 game is 21st state 😀😎
Thanks for watching Tom. We'll need to have another game of this the next time you come to visit us 😁
Excellent list! Spirit Island is definitely my favorite for the reasons you outlined.
Surprised I hadnt seen this channel before. Great production quality
Thanks so much for watching and commenting 😊
I want to play all of these games with you guys. 😂 Caverna and Terraforming Mars especially.
I will happily play both with you !!
@@GatheringGames I'll hold you to that! 😐
Let's do it!
Jaipur is one of me and my partner's favorite two player games. So simple yet so great with luck and strategy! Thanks for the video! Always looking for different perspectives and new games to add to the foundational collection.
It's such a brilliant little game. It always works so well as a gateway game. Thanks so much for watching and commenting 😊
Caverna is king when it comes to worker placement games. As much as I love A Feast For Odin, there's no beating Caverna.
It really is the king! I've still today not played a more gripping worker placement game than Caverna. Thanks for watching and dropping a comment 😊
@GatheringGames no probs. Darwin's Journey is very good, btw.
I really enjoyed this video. Production was excellent and I really liked how natural you guys seem talked about the games you clearly enjoy. Subscribed.
Thanks so much for subbing. I guess it's easy talking games when you live and breathe them like I do 😂
Terrific video, gentlemen. And what a fabulous beard, Sahd! Subbed.
Thank you lol
Namaste! 🙏
Namaste! Thanks so much for watching and commenting 😁
Guys
Shadows of brimstone
We'll put this to the top of our list of games to play! Thanks so much for watching and commenting 😁
Great video guys, I really enjoyed that
Cheers for watching Nat!
Great video guys and great lists!! Definitely made me want to play mansions again been far too long
I never got around to playing the final chapter of the base game. We should arrange a date!
Great vibes, you got yourself a sub!
Love the content guys, can't wait to visit the store!
Thanks so much for watching and commenting. We hope to see you at the shop soon 😁
First timer here! Great videos. I feel like lots of RUclipsrs just talk passionately about games without showing it, or have some boring editing. You guys knock it out of the park! Subbed!
Mage Knight ❤❤❤